The Government has been asked to support a proposal by six east of England authorities to act as an exemplar for how medium-sized cities can deliver sustainable housing and job growth.
City leaders from Ipswich, Colchester, Norwich, Peterborough, Luton and Southend met local government minister, David Miliband, last week, armed with evidence that building houses was cheaper and more sustainable in their cities than in nearby government growth areas. But while the ‘regional cities east’ say they have both the capacity and appetite for ramping up house-building targets, they need the funding for infrastructure and high-level support from Whitehall to make this sustainable growth.
The five original partners – minus Southend – need an estimated £2.44bn to deliver one-quarter of the region’s new homes up to 2021, according to consultant Roger Tym & Partners. The cities plan to build 160,000 new homes over the next 20 years, the vast majority on brownfield land, thereby helping to sustainably accommodate a large chunk of the east of England’s 478,000 housing target. The regional cities east will publish a detailed business plan setting out their strategy for accommodating growth in two months’ time.
A spokesman said that joint collaboration to encourage polycentric development could include joint arrangements for levering in private sector investment and joint service delivery, such as a shared service for processing planning applications to turn them around more quickly than normal. ‘It’s about not dealing with these problems in isolation,’ he said. Miliband said after meeting the city leaders – part of a regional tour – that it was ‘impressive to see these towns and cities working together so productively’.
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